#001 Welcome to Don't Step on the Bluebells — Amanda Parker
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In this episode, Amanda Parker talks all things healing and transformation, why she started this podcast, and what you can expect from listening.
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“It has been a true journey every step of the way to get a better understanding of myself; of my body, of my mind, of my emotions, and really learning that it’s possible to create a life that I love doing work that I love.”
Today's Guest
Amanda Parker
Amanda Parker is a transformation catalyst and Founder of AmandaParker.co, a company focused on blending modern business practices with ancient wisdom. She is also the host of this Podcast! With over 15 years of professional experience, Amanda teaches leaders and entrepreneurs across the globe to access their intuition through transformative coaching programs and keynotes.
Blending the mystical and tactical, Amanda has coached and empowered leaders at top companies like World Bank Group, Center for Creative Leadership, World Economic Forum, WWF, Zalando, and many scaling companies in the FinTech space. Along with an Executive MBA from IE Business School, Amanda holds professional certifications from the Co-Active Training Institute, the International Coaching Federation, and she is a qualified Reiki Master.
Amanda is a dynamic and engaging speaker who has been featured on numerous podcasts speaking about courage, heart-centered leadership, and intuition. Amanda is a wise and compassionate guide who helps people discover their inner strength and live their life with purpose. She guides audiences on an inward journey to unlock their gifts, live purposefully, and approach work and life with more creativity and fulfillment. Amanda currently lives in London, UK with her husband and cat.
How to get in touch:
Website: www.amandaparker.co | www.couragefactory.com
Instagram: @amandaparker.co
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandamparker/
Podcast: Don't Step on the Bluebells
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Show Notes
Welcome to the first episode of Don't Step on the Bluebells! Host Amanda Parker introduces listeners to her podcast focused on personal growth, healing, and transformation. Amanda explains that she will be sharing her own journey as well as introducing experts in intuitive healing modalities. Each episode will provide practical techniques and inspiration to create meaningful change in your life.
In this episode, Amanda shares her story of discovering alternate healing when traditional medicine failed to cure her stress-induced skin condition. This opened her mind and led her to Reiki, meditation, and eventually coaching others through transformation. She emphasizes that there's no "one size fits all" process but that change is possible if you get clear on your vision. Amanda invites listeners to pick one area of life they want to improve, rate it on a scale of 1-10, and brainstorm how to move one step forward.
If you're seeking more purpose and growth, subscribe to come along for the journey. Amanda looks forward to building a community where everyone can learn and share their experiences of personal evolution and spiritual awakening.
Key Takeaways
The goal of the podcast is to educate, inspire, and empower listeners on their journey of self-discovery, personal growth, and inner transformation.
Amanda will share stories and introduce experts in alternative healing modalities like energy work, visualization, theta healing, etc.
Listeners will learn practical techniques to enrich their lives and evolve spiritually.
Amanda has experienced her own profound healing and transformation, which fuels her passion for this work.
She aims to help people find deeper meaning, tap into inner wisdom, and make meaningful shifts.
There's no "one size fits all" process.
Her journey began by healing stress-induced skin issues using Ayurvedic medicine, which opened her mind.
Reiki was a gateway into meditation, healing energies, and understanding the mind-body connection.
She creates rituals, ceremonies, and experiences to facilitate others' personal growth.
This podcast will share wisdom and community for those seeking something greater in life.
Listeners are invited to share their own experiences and be part of the journey.
What We Talked About
Amanda introduces Don't Step on the Bluebells - all about personal transformation and healing
She will share her own journey plus introduce experts in intuitive modalities
Listeners will learn practical techniques for growth and enrichment
Amanda healed a stress-induced skin condition using alternative medicine
Her gateway into energy work was Reiki and she now coaches others
There's no "one size fits all" process but change is possible with vision
Listeners are invited to join the journey and community of growth
Guest Quotes
"It has been a true journey every step of the way to get a better understanding of myself; of my body, of my mind, of my emotions, and really learning that it's possible to create a life that I love doing work that I love."
"Reiki was like a gateway drug for me of opening up my mind to the world of meditation and healing and energy, and really being able to create the world that I live in and the experience that I have."
"We are going to be going on this journey deeper together—that you can start to realize what's possible. And maybe find yourself in some of the stories that are shared or in my own story where you're really looking for something different and hoping to have answers or access to people who can support you."
"If you can get a clear enough vision of what that looks like, it is possible for you."
"This podcast is as much a tool for me to explore and learn and get to meet incredible people in this world as it is for you—to be able to introduce you to them as well."
"The more that we start to dig into all these questions, the more questions that arise. Anyone who's been on this journey for any period of time will know that that is true."
Resources to Learn More
BOOKS
These books cover a range of entry points into personal growth, energy medicine, mindfulness, and holistic health.
The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - Personal growth/self-discovery
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - Unlocking creativity/purpose
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza - Energy healing/neuroscience
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
You are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza - Mind-body medicine
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Dr. Julie Smith
How to Meet Yourself by Dr. Nicole LePera
SELECT THOUGHT LEADERS
Terms & Tools to Dig Deeper
Ayurvedic medicine - An ancient Indian system of holistic healing focused on balance in the body, mind, and spirit.
Chakras - Energy centers in the subtle body that connect it with the physical body.
Energy fields - According to some healing practices, the layers of energy surrounding and penetrating the body.
Energy healing - Working with subtle energy fields to bring balance and promote wellbeing. Examples are Reiki, quantum touch, etc.
Herbal medicine - Using plants and plant extracts to treat illnesses and support wellbeing.
Holistic healing - Addressing the whole person - mind, body, spirit - not just isolated symptoms.
Intuition - The ability to understand or know something without conscious reasoning. Our inner guidance system.
Meditation - The practice of focusing the mind to increase awareness, insight, and inner calm.
Mind-body connection - The interaction between our thoughts/feelings and physical health.
Plant medicine - Using medicinal plants, often ceremonially, for healing purposes. Examples are ayahuasca, peyote.
Psychedelics - Substances like psilocybin or LSD that can induce altered states of consciousness and spiritual experiences.
Psychosomatic - Relating to the interaction between mental/emotional factors and bodily symptoms.
Pulse diagnosis - An Ayurvedic technique to assess the health and vitality of different systems by feeling the pulse.
Reiki - A Japanese energy healing practice that promotes stress reduction and relaxation by laying of hands.
Rituals/ceremonies - Symbolic collective practices that can facilitate transitions, meaning, or connection.
Shaman - A healer or wise person who can mediate between the visible and spirit worlds.
Theta healing - A spiritual healing practice that incorporates theta brain waves to connect with intuition and make instant changes.
Visualization - The practice of generating mental imagery to manifest goals or Desired outcomes. Uses the power of the mind.
Thanks for listening!
What was your biggest insight from this episode? Let me know @amandaparker.co
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Episode Transcript
Amanda: [00:00:00] Welcome, welcome, welcome, my friends to the Don't Step on the Bluebells podcast. I'm Amanda Parker, and I am thrilled to be your host on [00:01:00] this journey of self-discovery.
The world of alternative healing and deep inner work has completely transformed my life, and I'm so excited to share with you some of the incredible discoveries that I've made and the truly remarkable people that I've met along the way.
Each episode, we're going to be diving deep into the world of intuition or energy healing, or other holistic practices that have a truly mind- blowing impact, either in my life or in the lives of the people that I'm going to be introducing you to. So I'll be sharing my own personal journey along the way and sharing some of my experiences as well as introducing you to some of the most incredible healers or practitioners that I've met or been introduced to. So These are people who have been working with these practices for years or who have completely dedicated their life to this work. And we're going to make sure to dive really deep into individual practices so that you [00:02:00] get a feeling for what kind of transformation is actually possible when you're working together with someone who's either in the energy realm or perhaps in a bit more of the visualization or theta healing realm.
All of these terms are going to become more familiar to you along the way. The bottom line is that, there are so many different ways that we can approach our own personal growth, our own transformation, or our own healing. And most of us start out on this journey because we know that something needs to change and we don't always know exactly what that is, or we don't really know how to even begin.
You might have a list or a hundred books on your shelf about inner work or personal growth or helping yourself heal. I know I've got bookshelves and bookshelves full of this stuff myself, but it can be really hard to know how do I actually [00:03:00] apply this practically in my own life. Who can I turn to for the best advice or who might best be able to support me?
And of course a lot of us grew up in cultures where this work is frowned upon. It's not something that you talk about openly. Especially if you come from a more religious background or a conservative background, or your family just didn't believe in any kind of spirituality or energy or something else beyond what we can see in the day-to-day.
My goal, in Don't Step on the Bluebells, is to open your mind to showcase so many different kinds of healing or perspectives that are going to give you what you need to start your own journey. And if you're already on a journey, this podcast is still going to help introduce you to techniques or people or methods or ideas that you might not have been exposed to [00:04:00] before, or that you might like to learn a bit more about.
So throughout the course of our time together, I'll be inviting on experts to share their work, to share some of the tools and techniques that they've been using, that they're expert in, in their own craft, and the ways that these have really impacted the lives of the people that they work with. So we'll be hearing some incredible stories of transformation. As well as getting a better understanding of what exactly that method is.
You'll learn some practical tips or techniques, how you can apply it in your own life, or where you can find a qualified practitioner that can actually support you on your own journey. You'll also be hearing from other people, just regular people like you and me who are seeking something deeper in our lives, seeking more meaning, more purpose, or really looking to shift something that [00:05:00] might have felt impossible to change.
These are people who are just gonna share what their own journey and experience has been, the kind of healing or transformation that they've experienced, the kind of support that they got along the way and what worked for them and what didn't. And then of course, I'll be sharing my own journey.
So there's a reason I'm so interested in this work, and it really comes down to my own personal and very practical experience of trying to find myself and trying to find that deeper meaning and purpose in my life, which has led me on a journey of really supporting people to transform the way they live their lives. So the deeper that I go in my own personal transformation and healing, the more that I show up to help others, because I see just how powerful and impactful this work really is, and how difficult it can actually be for people to have access or to know [00:06:00] where to look.
My passion with Don't Step on the Bluebells is... basically how difficult it was for me to find this information when I was seeking it out. Every time I tried to find the answers or a new way forward or something that could really empower or help me, I hit walls all over the place and step by step I chipped away at the walls; I found one more healer, one more story, one more book, one more resource, one more something that took me just a bit further on that path.
And now, I'm coming from a place where I've had a lot of experience. I've met a lot of incredible people, and I've seen what's really possible when you're committed to heal, when you're committed to transform, when you're really deeply committed to yourself and to seeing what else is possible for you in your life, and what kind of magic is able to [00:07:00] unfold.
That doesn't mean the journey is easy or has been easy, for sure not. The more that we start to dig into all these questions, the more questions that arise. Anyone who's been on this journey for any period of time will know that that is true. So the goal here is not to find the one and only resource or the bandaid or the thing that's going to like fix all your life problems.
No. But it is an exploration into what could be possible to really open your eyes to another way of living, another way of being another possibility for clearing out what doesn't work in your life or what's not serving you, and help you take steps forward, feeling really empowered in your own life to do things differently.
The main goals are really around education, helping to share knowledge and wisdom and bring in the experts who can [00:08:00] really share with you information that's gonna help you in your life and expand your horizons and understanding of what is possible, to inspire you to think bigger, to think differently, to recognize that there's more to the world , that you might not know, and really to empower you, that you have what it takes to go on this journey, that the resources are available, there's people who are going on the journey alongside you. You might have felt alone, but you're really not.
One of my bigger visions with creating this podcast, so first of all, it's my own exploration continuing. I've done a lot of work, I've done a lot of research and understanding and training and everything on my own, and I'll share some of that with you , in today's episode and then of course, as we move along throughout the podcast journey, but also, I'm continuing to search and to understand.[00:09:00]
I have an insatiable hunger to understand how the world works and what are these different energies and modalities and understandings and healings that I've heard about or seen or maybe just like had a taste of but didn't really know what it is or how to take it deeper.
This podcast is as much a tool for me to explore and learn and get to meet incredible people in this world as it is for you -to be able to introduce you to them as well. So together we're going to be learning.
I hope to hear from you along the journey, that you reach out and share your own experiences, your own transformation, the things that you've tried that just did not work at all, or the things that you've tried that have really, really helped you in your life to change the way that you see the world or [00:10:00] to change the way that you feel in the world.
So it's an open conversation that we're going to be having. There will be a community that can really come together and share these experiences. That's something that has been so important in my own journey, is finding those people who are doing the work alongside me, who are supporting me and lifting me up and helping me realize what's possible. I really wanna offer that to everyone who's listening to this, who has an interest in doing that inner work and doesn't know who to turn... or maybe the people in your life are just not supportive or understanding of what it is that you're experiencing. That's something to look out for in the future...
As we're at the beginning of this journey together, I wanna share with you a bit of who I am and what it is that makes this topic so important to me. I create transformational experiences. I lead ceremonies and I lead rituals that really help people [00:11:00] to enrich and transform their lives.
I'm a transformational life and leadership coach. I work together with leaders and entrepreneurs and just creative individuals across the globe who are looking to make a deep and meaningful shift in their life. They're looking for that deeper purpose. They're looking for more meaning, and everything they've tried until now hasn't really gotten them where they wanna be.
In some cases, someone has reached exponential success. They've raised up in their career, they've reached that top leadership position exactly where they thought they wanted to go, only to realize it doesn't quite feel how they hoped it would, or perhaps they've started a business and they're flourishing and the business is going really well, and they just feel like something is missing. I mean, the opposite is true as well, of course, I've worked with clients who have started a business and poured their heart and soul in, and it's just not really working out, [00:12:00] and they don't know why. And in all of these cases, people are really trying to find that deeper meaning, that deeper purpose, what it is that truly fulfills them and lights them up.
And together we're working through a process that helps them really get in touch with their inner essence to tap into that inner wisdom, their own knowing, which helps guide them forward in every single area of their life. So there is no one size fits all. There is no package or process deal that you follow steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and you reach this end goal.
And my God, I wish there was because I would've been following it all along as well. But we're working together really collaboratively to create a journey that helps people get back in touch with who they are and along this journey to [00:13:00] helping others, I've also been evolving myself as a leader, as a coach, as a spiritual guide.
I've been doing that deep inner work myself for years. So I can tell you starting maybe about 10 years ago, I was working in, what was my dream job. I worked in wildlife conservation. I was a Project Manager with WWF. I was supporting projects in South America. I was traveling all the time to the project regions that I was supporting.
I spent time in the most incredible forests and jungles and wetlands, working with colleagues who were the world leading scientists and experts in their field. Every single thing about this role was perfect on paper, but the reality, the lived experience for me was that I never [00:14:00] quite felt settled in what I was doing, even though I thought I had reached this level of success, and I heard it all the time from the outside... people would come and tell me, "Oh my God, you're living a dream! This is unbelievable. I can't believe this is the work you get to do every day."
And yes, they were right. It was incredible. And I knew how special it was and I knew how special those relationships were and what I got to do on a daily basis. And yet, part of me still felt so unfulfilled. like I wasn't really reaching my potential and I was sort of doing what felt easy or simple.
I started trying to go on a journey of searching to learn, to grow, to figure out different ways to make incremental change so that I could feel more satisfied in my work, and nothing seemed to be working.
It [00:15:00] wasn't until about 2013 or 2014 that I was experiencing so much stress from this uncertainty of what I was supposed to be doing.
I was in a relationship that was, quite frankly, failing. It was not helping my mental state, and all of a sudden my skin started breaking out. So I found myself covered from head to toe in some kind of rash, and I didn't know what it was, and I started freaking out because as someone who had never been really so attuned to energy or psychosomatic connections, like understanding that thoughts and feelings and emotions could have an impact on my physical body -this wasn't something I had ever tuned into or understood before.
So I just thought, "Shhi..." Excuse my language. Uh, "Shoot! Something's going [00:16:00] on." I'm allergic to something. I have to fix something. My skin's breaking out. I don't know why." And so I started to see doctors. I went to specialist after specialist to dermatologists who all had a different idea of what was wrong with me.
I was prescribed, um, steroid creams and pills and acid cleansing facials and all these different things to try to clear up the actual physical problem on the surface of my skin and literally nothing was working. It just kept getting worse. So even though I was seeing really amazing specialists in their field, nothing worked.
And I had a colleague who I worked with who's an amazing woman. Still an amazing woman, who had recommended to me that I see a doctor that she was seeing who is an Ayurvedic doctor. And I knew from her stories that this woman had done really amazing things in her life and had helped her a lot, [00:17:00] but I also knew that she was going to be talking to me about herbal treatments and pills, and I really just didn't believe in any of that stuff.
So I was very, very reluctant to actually go and meet with this woman. But there was a point after maybe six months or almost a year of experiencing these skin problems that just wouldn't go away. The stress of this relationship, the stress of not really being satisfied or happy in my job, and I went to go see this doctor.
I met with her. I probably spent about 20 minutes with her, and she did a pulse diagnosis, as is known in Ayurvedic medicine. Don't worry, later in the show somewhere, I'm going to try to get her on here so that you'll be able to hear more about what that work looks like. And she could tell that my cortisol levels were extremely high, that I was under an immense amount of stress and pressure, and that something would need to change for me to be able to actually come down from all of that. [00:18:00] So she prescribed me a number of different herbal medicines that I started to take on a daily basis. And while I wasn't sure if I believed in it or not, I kind of felt like, well, what do I have to lose because nothing else is working how I thought it would.
I have to say that within two or three weeks of starting that, Herbal treatment, my skin cleared up completely. There were no more steroid creams. There were no more pharmaceutical meds. There were no more appointments with dermatologists who couldn't quite figure it out and kept giving me incorrect diagnoses.
When I was speaking to this Ayurvedic doctor, , I said, " Some say it's psoriasis or maybe some type of eczema that's coming out." She said, "It's not. It's none of those things, and I promise you it can be healed." Once my skin healed, something clicked on inside. I started to [00:19:00] realize, okay, maybe, maybe there's more to this world and life than I realized.
I continued on that treatment path with those pills and still wasn't quite sure what I believed, but I knew this worked and I didn't really ask any other questions about it. As I continued on in my life, different moments would come up and now all of a sudden I had a new signal. So if something was happening in my life where I felt extremely stressed out or things were not working how I wanted them, and I felt like I was just like hitting against a wall or running uphill, I'd get just a small marking on my skin and it would start as one dot maybe two. And the longer that I ignored it or the stress built up, the more marks would come. So it actually became a type of warning system in my body that would let me know [00:20:00] something's not right here and you need to make a change.
Over the years, this has become an extremely strong signal to me. If I feel like I'm under undue stress or something's not working, or I'm not quite sure, I'm trying to push the needle on something and it's just not going how I hoped, and I start to see a marking of any kind on my skin, I know that it's time to hit pause and recalibrate.
This is just one of the many, many different types of techniques that I've been introduced to. This was, in essence, the first healing that I experienced, that I was really aware of, and I just could not believe how profound and powerful it was. So, as my journey continued many years later, I left one organization, then another company. I started my own [00:21:00] business. And I will share so much more about this with you as we move forward together.
It was in 2018 that I met, my Reiki teacher, Emma McKendrick, who I will also be introducing you to, who trained me on this first methodology of energy healing. So, first methodology that I had ever been exposed to, and that really started to open my eyes and open my world to so much of what's possible that I just never understood before in this world. Reiki was like a gateway drug for me of opening up my mind to the world of meditation and healing and energy, and really being able to create the world that I live in and the experience that I have.
And it has been a true journey every step of the way to get a better understanding of myself; of my [00:22:00] body, of my mind, of my emotions, and really learning that it's possible to create a life that I love doing work that I love.
That is why being a coach is something that I have fought for, that I've really worked so hard to find that ability to be able to serve others, to do this work themselves. Because It has been so unbelievably life-changing in my own life that I can't imagine not helping other people have access to this incredible wisdom and understanding that I do.
We are going to be going on this journey deeper together -that you can start to realize what's possible. And maybe find yourself in some of the stories that are shared or in my own story where you're really looking for something [00:23:00] different and hoping to have answers or access to people who can support you.
That is my goal here.
Now that we're at the beginning of Don't Step on the Bluebells, my invitation to you is to take some time and think about one area of your life that isn't quite working how you hoped it would, something that you know, you just wish would be a little bit better.
Maybe it's in your career, maybe it's in your finances, your romantic partnership, your friendships. Maybe it's in your spiritual development, or your physical health. Think of that one area and imagine a scale from zero to ten. Imagine that zero is completely unsatisfied, unhappy, nothing's working. [00:24:00] Ten is, this is really incredible. Everything's going so well. I can't believe that I've reached this place. And give yourself a ranking from zero to ten. In that area of your life, where do you think you are? So let's say that your area is something to do with physical health and you really haven't been feeling that great, you've been having stomach problems or maybe you've put on some weight and you're not sure where the stress is coming from that's creating it- whatever the challenge might be.
Let's say you give yourself a ranking of six. So describe what that feels like, that understanding of what a six feels like for you and then I want you to imagine what does a ten feel like? So really allow yourself to open your mind to what does a ten in physical health mean for me? And maybe that means that you're feeling really strong, that you're able [00:25:00] to help your family with carrying heavy things. Maybe that means that you can go for a walk in the park for an hour and a half without losing your breath. Maybe that means you feel really amazing in these beautiful clothes, or a beautiful dress or suit that you've bought yourself. So whatever a ten means for you- identify that. And then ask yourself how you can push the needle one place.
So if you're at a six and you know what a ten looks like, how can you push the needle from six to seven? What's that gonna look like? And start to open your eyes and your mind to the possibility that things could change.
I will leave you with that exercise and give you the chance to actually take it in, get to know what that looks like for you, and start to connect a bit more deeply with the areas of your life [00:26:00] that you wish and would like to experience a shift. And know that whatever that shift is that you wanna experience, if you can get a clear enough vision of what that looks like, it is possible for you.
We're going to be coming together on a weekly basis. I'll be releasing episodes. Some of them will be in an interview format, some of them will be storytelling or sharing from me, maybe some visualizations or exercises as we go along.
And some will be interviews and conversations with just normal people who have experienced incredible transformation in their lives.
If you're enjoying what you're listening to, I encourage you to hit the subscribe button, follow along. Be the first to know when a new episode is launched. And welcome, welcome, welcome once again to Don't Step [00:27:00] on the Bluebells. I am so excited to be here with you and see what it is that we're gonna create together. Thanks for tuning in and see you next week.